Weetabix Top Trax / Top Trax II - Various Artists

One of my first posts here talked about the song Young At Heart by The Bluebells; a song that I know and love, and has some good memories associated with it. Chances are that the only reason I know it so well is because we had it on a cassette tape that came free (with tokens, I suspect) from Weetabix breakfast cereal. The tape itself was given away during 1985, the song was originally released in 1984, and I was born in 1983. So I suspect that, without the tape kicking around my house, I wouldn't have ordinarily listened to it a great deal due to being so young when it was out.

But we did have the cassette.

In fact, we had several. Weetabix did two sets of tapes, one in 1985 and one in 1986, known as Top Trax and - imaginatively - Top Trax II. Each cassette has two songs on each side. I'm not sure how many tapes there were altogether. I still have six, and I believe that is all we ever had. Five from the original set, and one from Top Trax II.

I've had several visits to my post about The Bluebells track, which mentions the Weetabix tapes, so I've decided I'd mention all the tapes I have. Partly because I like listing stuff, partly because some people may be genuinely interested and (most importantly of all, considering the purpose of this blog) because these tapes defined my listening habits and tastes for quite some time.

From a very young age, these cassettes were played repeatedly. At first, played around/to me, but then later played by me. Long car journeys meant my sister and I bringing the cassettes along with us and shouting, "Mum! Change the tape!" after every four songs. I regard those six tapes as a single album of 28 tracks and, since I now own each of the songs on CD or MP3, I often consider compiling them into a Top Trax playlist so I can once again listen to them as a whole.

Here's my collection of the tapes:

Weetabix Top Trax/II Cassettes

And here's a list of what was on each of them (again, I point out that I don't have all of the tapes that were ever given away, so this is just a list of those I have):

Brian's Cassette:
1.1. Haircut One Hundred - Fantastic Day
1.2. Nik Kershaw - I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
2.1. The Bluebells - Young At Heart
2.2. New Edition - Candy Girl

Bixie's Cassette:
1.1. Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good
1.2. Bucks Fizz - My Camera Never Lies
2.1. Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen
2.2. Irene Cara - Fame

Dunk's Cassette:
1.1. Thompson Twins - Doctor! Doctor!
1.2. Tears For Fears - Shout
2.1. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
2.2. Kirsty MacColl - There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis

Crunch's Cassette:
1.1. Tears For Fears - Mad World
1.2. Big Country - Wonderland
2.1. The Jam - Beat Surrender
2.2. Status Quo - The Wanderer

Brain's Cassette (this is the one with a torn label, so I don't know which side is which):
?.1. Bucks Fizz - If You Can't Stand The Heat
?.2. Thomson Twins - We Are Detective
?.1. Bananarama - Robert De Niro's Waiting
?.2. ABC - The Look Of Love

Bixie's Cassette - Top Trax II:
1.1. Thomson Twins - Don't Mess With Doctor Dream
1.2. Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
2.1. Five Star - System Addict
2.2. Baltimora - Tarzan Boy

For me, the three standout artists from that bunch are Nik Kershaw, Tears for Fears, and Thompson Twins. Mainly because, several years later, I got myself the greatest hits CDs of each of these and discovered other songs that have gone on to become particular favourites. And there is no doubt that my enjoyment of music from the 1980's began with these tapes.

EDIT (05/08/12): I have just realised that I must own at least one other tape, because I'm certain that Nik Kershaw's Wide Boy was a featured track. When I return home, I must search...

EDIT (08/08/12): Yep, I actually have one other tape:

Brian's Cassette - Top Trax II:
1.1 Nik Kershaw - Wide Boy
1.2 Big Country - Look Away
2.1 Bronski Beat - Hit That Perfect Beat
2.2 Jim Diamond - Hi Ho Silver

Weetabix Top Trax II - Brian's Cassette

The photo above also shows how awesome my mum was, in that she'd type little inlays for all the cassettes, just to make life easier searching for the tape we particularly wanted. To be honest, I'm surprised I forgot about this one. Side 1 must have been played an awful lot.

"People go to movies or listen to music because they want to be inspired" - Daphne Zuniga